mentanoia - ben gross

chapter five;

Chapter five;

She really was her mother's daughter.

Ben had tried to find her in the guest room, but when she was no longer there, he'd assumed she'd gone home so he had gone to take a shower. Confusingly, when he came out and hobbled downstairs in his bathrobe, it smelled particularly good considering no one was supposed to be home.

"Jane?" He called out as he walked into the kitchen. Scanning the massive room, he came to the conclusion that she wasn't here either, but then he saw the plate standing on the cupboards.

Walking up to it, he found a note with her handwriting.

"I'm starting to understand why my mom always calls you a prince."

His cheeks started to glow, perhaps a tiny bit embarrassed that she knew about that nickname he'd been given. Neatly folding the paper, he pushed it in his bathrobe's pocket. Then he glanced at the plate, finding it to be filled with a simple egg on toast.

Though his heart felt warm and appreciated, Ben felt his stomach itch. Why, was the only thing he could ponder about, why was she doing all these things? If it had just been cleaning his house to let go of her thoughts, fine, but everything she did somehow included him.

Ben didn't understand.

~

With a small and neat bouquet of flowers in his hands, Ben scurried through the long corridors of school. His eyes scanned every inch of the area, trying to find her brown eyes, somewhere.

"Oh my- Are these for me?"

He hadn't even seen Shira before he bumped into her- or before she bumped into him. Ben jumped a step back and observed Shira grin at the flowers. She had already taken out her mobile phone.

"Actually," Ben muttered, "They are for a friend of mine."

Her jaw dropped in an instant, "A lady friend, I bet." She hissed, annoyed. "Literally who even buys flowers anymore. That's so strange, yikes. And who-ever that friend of you is, she better not try to steal you from me."

He could only frown and stare at the girl who he'd been calling his girlfriend for months. He could vaguely remember the evening on which he'd kissed with her at a party, and practically the following day the two had started dating.

"Yeah, well, her brother died. So I think this is the least I could do." He replied sternly, now just pissed off at the response he'd gotten. "So if you excuse me." He pushed past her.

He'd walked every corridor twice without any success, but eventually found one of the people he'd seen Jane sit with at lunch. It was a tall Asian kid, Deguzman, Ben had seen the kid exhibit a couple of painting before.

"Hey!" Ben called out, touching the guy's shoulder briefly, "You're friends with Jane, right? I'm Ben, also a friend- Doesn't matter." He quickly corrected himself, "Are you going to the funeral?"

Deguzman looked at Ben strangely, "Jane?" He tried to recall the name, it seemed quite familiar to him, "Oh, yes. Odd girl, always asks a dozen of questions in every class." He paused, "I don't think I've heard her ask a single question this week, how odd."

Ben didn't know what to do with that information, "Yeah, sure, well. Are you going? Can you take these-"

Deguzman seemed to snap back into reality, "Oh, the funeral. Wait, who died again?"

Motioning with his hands, he showed his impatience, "Her brother?" Ben replied.

Deguzman flinched up, surprise flickering in his eyes. "Aw, how awful for her. I had no idea- but hey, give her my condolences will you." And off he went, walking off to continue his life like nothing had happened.